Operators of The Headquarters at Seaport commercial center in downtown San Diego recently signed a lease with Block 16 Hospitality to operate the region’s first Flour & Barley Brick Oven Pizza restaurant, set to open this fall.

The San Diego Business Journal recently spoke with top local regional executives of the larger commercial real estate brokerage companies. Here are some of their takes on what happened in the year’s first half and what’s likely ahead for the rest of 2015:

With Few Spec Projects Underway, Market Conditions Continue to Drive Up Tenant Costs

Halfway through 2015, San Diego County’s commercial real estate market is reaping the benefits of continued new-job creation and an unemployment rate that had dipped to 4.9 percent as of late spring, down from around 6 percent at the same point of 2014.

Two Women Entrepreneurs Saw Opportunity in A Financial Market That Wasn’t Being Well Served

When Valorie Seyfert and Amy Beattie launched CUSO Financial Services (CFS) in 1996, they were betting they could capitalize on credit unions’ frustrations with the independent broker-dealers the institutions had hired to offer securities products, such as annuities and mutual funds, to the unions’ members.